esently made an expedition against Coelesyria. He also took Gadara,
after a siege of ten months. He took also Areathus, a very strong
fortress belonging to the inhabitants above Jordan, where Theodorus, the
son of Zeno, had his chief treasure, and what he esteemed most precious.
This Zeno fell unexpectedly upon the Jews, and slew ten thousand of
them, and seized upon Alexander's baggage. Yet did not this misfortune
terrify Alexander; but he made an expedition upon the maritime parts
of the country, Raphia and Anthedon, [the name of which king Herod
afterwards changed to Agrippias,] and took even that by force. But when
Alexander saw that Ptolemy was retired from Gaza to Cyprus, and his
mother Cleopatra was returned to Egypt, he grew angry at the people
of Gaza, because they had invited Ptolemy to assist them, and besieged
their city, and ravaged their country. But as Apollodotus, the general
of the army of Gaza, fell upon the camp of the Jews by night, with two
thousand foreign and ten thousand of his own forces, while the night
lasted, those of Gaza prevailed, because the enemy was made to believe
that it was Ptolemy who attacked them; but when day was come on, and
that mistake was corrected, and the Jews knew the truth of the matter,
they came back again, and fell upon those of Gaza, and slew of them
about a thousand. But as those of Gaza stoutly resisted them, and
would not yield for either their want of any thing, nor for the great
multitude that were slain, [for they would rather suffer any hardship
whatever than come under the power of their enemies,] Aretas, king of
the Arabians, a person then very illustrious, encouraged them to go on
with alacrity, and promised them that he would come to their assistance;
but it happened that before he came Apollodotus was slain; for his
brother Lysimachus envying him for the great reputation he had gained
among the citizens, slew him, and got the army together, and delivered
up the city to Alexander, who, when he came in at first, lay quiet, but
afterward set his army upon the inhabitants of Gaza, and gave them leave
to punish them; so some went one way, and some went another, and slew
the inhabitants of Gaza; yet were not they of cowardly hearts, but
opposed those that came to slay them, and slew as many of the Jews; and
some of them, when they saw themselves deserted, burnt their own houses,
that the enemy might get none of their spoils; nay, some of them, with
their own hands